It's A Great Day for the Irish

The original Irish-American song was written in 1940 by Roger Edens, one of the many musical directors at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios under the leadership of Arthur Freed for inclusion in the film version of the George M. Cohan 1922 Broadway show Little Nellie Kelly, directed by Norman Taurog. The rights of the show were sold to MGM by Cohan as a starring vehicle for the young Judy Garland (Garland was a quarter Irish through her maternal grandmother Eva Fitzpatrick). The new song was to be used in a recreation of New York's famed annual St. Patrick's Day Parade marching up Fifth Avenue. It was to be a major production number requiring the New York Street set on the backlot to be enlarged, involving the main characters of the film and showcasing the young Garland's enormously strong voice and engaging performance style as she sang and danced up the avenue with her father, played by George Murphy, her stereotypical grandfather (played by Charles Winninger) and her boyfriend (Douglas McPhail). The movie was well received, but is now most remembered for the rousing song it introduced into Irish-American culture and as Garland's only death scene on film.

The song was originally recorded by Garland on Decca Records in 1940 as a single with another song from the film, "A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow", on the B-side. The song was a tremendous hit for her and the original Decca version remained in print from 1940 through the late 1980s. It was recorded several more times throughout her career with the last time being at the "London Sessions" under the musical direction of Norrie Paramor for Capitol Records in 1962. She often sang it live, particularly in concerts in Ireland and the UK where audiences clapped, sang along and danced in the aisles. During her famed Amsterdam, Holland concert the audience stomped their feet and demanded the song to which Garland giggled and replied "well okay - its very loud" One particular review of a show wrote, "she shook the walls with her raucous rendition". The lively song included a special verse of difficult tongue-twisting rhyming Irish surnames and places, that seemed to thunder from Garland's throat effortlessly. The song was popular on jukeboxes in Irish Pubs and was recorded by numerous other Irish artists such as: Carmel Quinn, Bing Crosby, Ruby Murray, Daniel O'Donnell and the The Clancy Brothers among others. Italian-American singer Connie Francis also recorded the song.

The song went on to become a worldwide St. Patrick's Day anthem and its familiar strains are heard on the occasion around the world annually. The lively upbeat song is a favorite played by military and school marching bands everywhere and is now a standard sound for the "Great Day" as popular as "The Wearing of the Green" and has been firmly embedded in Irish-American culture.

Lyrics

Oh, I woke me up this morning and I heard a joyful songFrom the throats of happy Irishmen, a hundred thousand strongSure it was the Hibernian BrigadeLining up for to start the big paradeSo I fetched me Sunday bonnet and the flag I love so wellAnd I bought meself a shamrock just to wear in me lapelDon't you know that today's March seventeen?It's the day for the wearing of the green...........

It's a great day for the Irish, it's a great day for fairThe side-walks of New York are thick with BlarneyFor shure you'd think New York was Old Killarney

Begosh and begorragh, every Irish son and daughter Every good old Irish name and their relationThey come from Tipperary, Donegal and County Kerry,

They are all here to join the celebration..........There's Connolly and Donnelly, Ryan, O'Brien,McLoughlin and Lynch, Pat Flannigan, McFadden, McPhearson and FinchHogan and Logan, Fitzpatrick, O'Bannigan, Danny O'Doole and Seamus O'Tool!

(note the Garland version includes a fast paced additional litany of names at this point)

It's a great day for the Shamrock, for the flags in full arrayWe're feeling so inspirish, shure because for all the IrishIt's a great, great day.....

It's a great day for the Irish, it's a great day for fairBegosh, there's not a cop to stop a raidingBegorrah all the cops are out paradingIt's a great day for the Shamrock, for the flags in full arrayAnd as we go a-swinging, every Irish heart is singingIt's a great, great day........

External links

* UK review of Garland at Hippodrome
* Reviews of performing of song in Ireland and Scotland 1951
* Judy Garland Article